Coaching: What to do when stuck in a rut.

It can be difficult to stay fresh and motivated as a coach. You’re inundated with the same skills, same routines, same music, same people. It can become a cyclic routine of endless gymnastics.

First, it’s important to understand that everyone, no matter the occupation, or stage of life, can get bogged down and stuck in a rut. If you can acknowledge this stage as an inevitable hurdle, rather than a complete dissipation of passion, you’re half way to crossing over it already.

There are ways you can stop and adopt new ways to keep motivated as a coach.

1.Do your research
Could you be getting bored because your strength and conditioning program has been the same for the last 2 years? It’s time to do your research and check out new and interesting ways to coach certain skills. Now more than ever, the Internet can provide you with new drills and programs that could assist in coaching certain elements in a fun and stimulating way. This makes it more exciting for not just yourself to coach, but for your athletes too. Look out for free material that gets circulated through your gymnastics community, for example check out our Tip Tuesday’s on the Kip’s Catch Up!

2.Talk to other coaches
Talking to other coaches not only gives you insight into the problems and qualms of others in your field, but also establishes a community where ideas and tips could be circulated in a supportive environment. It's important to get yourself out there and make friends who you’ll be working with so that you can look forward to coaching and seeing your mates every day!
3.Monkey do, then monkey say
Get into your active wear and spend some time in the gym exploring new techniques and drills, this allows you to understand what is fun and exciting and what can be boring or way too challenging. When you’ve discovered new handling for example, you’ll only be excited to pass this new knowledge on!

4.Cross your sporting cultural barriers
Just because you were an artistic gymnast, and now an artistic coach, does not mean you can’t appreciate, observe and learn from other gym sports and similar activities. Attend a Zumba or fitness class class, or simply walk over to the trampoline class happening on the other side of the gym and ask them whats happening. Now more than ever, sports are diverging and merging, learning from each other, so get out there, think outside the box and contribute to the evolution of gymnastics!

5. Remember why you are there

While it can be easy to get bogged down in any job, spending your days teaching others to complete the unimaginable is pretty amazing. You get to be a fun mentor, drill sargent, supportive parent and skill master all in a 3 hour session. Not to mention you get to wear tracksuit pants to work everyday, no one can complain about that!